Things have been a bit hectic for the Downstairs Cook of late, with little time to think of recipes to make for friends and family for Christmas. Fortunately, the real Downstairs Cook took time to mark tried and tested recipes in her copy of Mrs Beeton's Family Cookery & Household Management with an "X" and the odd comment. Such is the case with Mrs Beeton's gingerbread which she has labelled "Very Good". It is a simple recipe you can make from your store cupboard and produces a white gingerbread:
Gingerbread, White - INGREDIENTS: 1 lb of flour, 1/2 lb of butter, 1/2 lb of loaf sugar, the rind of 1 lemon, 1 oz of ground ginger, 1 nutmeg grated, 1/2 teaspoons of carbonate of soda, 1 gill of milk. AVERAGE COST 1 s 3 d
Rub the butter into the flour, add the sugar which should be finely pounded and sifted, and the minced lemon-rind, ginger and nutmeg. Mix these well together, make the milk just warm, stir in the soda and work the whole into a nice smooth paste, roll it out, cut it into cakes, and bake in moderate oven from 15 to 30 minutes.
TIME - 15 TO 20 minutes
SEASONABLE: at any time
A gill is a quarter of a pint. For those who measure using the metric system, a pint is 568 ml. So a quarter of a pint is 142 ml.
A nutmeg (which I've never seen in the flesh) looks to be the size of an acorn in the illustrations I've found. Grated, it may well produce over a teaspoonful. I'd suggest using a teaspoonful in the recipe, but since nutmeg is a rather pungent spice, it may be a bit overpowering for most. Just season to taste and trust your nose for this flavoursome recipe.
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